Wilderness Hub — Yosemite Conservancy | How to Apply

Wilderness Hub — Yosemite Conservancy | How to Apply
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Wilderness Hub
Planning an overnight adventure in the beautiful Yosemite Wilderness? Read on for key information to help you prepare for a successful trip, including how to make sure you have the necessary wilderness permits and food-storage supplies.
Wilderness Hub
All wilderness permit reservations are made through
Recreation.gov
and reviewed by Yosemite Conservancy. Reservations are first available via weekly lotteries, which happen 24 weeks in advance. Not sure when to apply? Check the
Wilderness Permits Reservation Window
to find the right lottery for your start date. Once you know when to apply, visit the “Yosemite National Park Wilderness Permits” page on Recreation. gov to learn more and submit your application.
Already applied? Lottery award notifications are emailed by
Recreation.gov
by 5 pm (PT) on the Monday after the lottery closes. The deadline to accept your lottery award is 11:59 pm on Thursday. You’ll need to accept your lottery award by the deadline or it will be released in the general reservation sale on Friday at 9 am (PT).
Have questions? We are here to help!
anytime and we will respond within two business days. You can also reach us by phone during our office hours: Monday through Friday from 9 am—12 pm and 1 pm —4 pm at
209-372-0740
Want a guided wilderness experience? Yosemite Conservancy offers both
Outdoor Adventures
and personalized
Custom Adventures
with expert naturalists, which include wilderness permits for overnight trips.
Planning your trip
Over 94% of Yosemite National Park’s almost 1200-square miles is designated Wilderness. This backpacking trip, be it your first or fortieth, is a unique opportunity to connect with yourself, your fellow hiker, and your natural environment through exploring your public lands. A good planning process will help you to find the right experience for your interests, timeframe, and abilities; stay safe; and ensure your Yosemite Wilderness experience is memorable for all the right reasons. It will also show you
how to be a steward of the wilderness
, to protect and preserve these wild places for generations to come.
The Yosemite Wilderness has over 750 miles of trail to explore from steep granite canyons to high alpine tundra and everything in between. The vastness of the Yosemite Wilderness means that it is not possible to see all the park in one backpacking trip. When thinking about where you want to go for your backpacking trip, you might want to pick one or two main objectives to focus on (for example, I want to camp close to an alpine lake or summit a mountain!) and go from there. These
trail descriptions
can help get you started. If you know where you want to go but are not sure which trailhead will get you there, the
Wilderness Trailheads Map
shows the location of each wilderness trailhead as well as the direction and minimum distance you are required to hike on your first day. Remember, often two trailheads begin at the same place and the difference between them will be which way you hike from that point. When you’re ready to start thinking about where you want to camp each night of your trip, the
Itinerary Map
highlights in red the areas where dispersed wilderness camping is not permitted and has the regions of the park labelled the same as you will find them when making your reservation in
recreation.gov
Another important consideration when planning your trip is how far you want to hike per day. It is important to remember that hiking 5 miles at 10,000ft in Tuolumne Meadows can feel a lot harder than hiking 5 miles at sea level, and whilst 3 miles might not sound like far, it can feel a lot further when you are also gaining over 3000 vertical feet to hike out of Yosemite Valley. If you’ve never hiked with a 30lb backpacking pack on your back, that is something else to think about!
Caltopo
is a virtual topographic map that you can use to measure distance and elevation profile of your proposed wilderness route to help determine if that route is right for you and your group before you hit the trail. GPS and virtual maps are useful when you’re on the trail too, however, it is important to remember that technology can fail. You should always carry
a paper map
of the area you are hiking in and know how to read it!
Now that you know where you are going, it’s time to think about when to go! For many people, work or other life commitments will make this decision for you. However, if you have the freedom to choose, it is important to consider the different
seasons in Yosemite
, and how these can impact your wilderness trip. If you are planning a trip in the high country, you might be surprised to find that trails can still be up to 80% snow covered well into June! If you’re visiting in September, many of Yosemite’s creeks and streams are ephemeral – many water sources, particularly at lower elevations, may be dry. During the summer months (April through October), you can check
trail conditions
for current information on water availability. Weather can change quickly and dramatically at any time of year, so it is important to check a reliable forecast. The weather in Tuolumne Meadows can be cool and rainy while Yosemite Valley is over 100 degrees and sunny so it is important to check
the forecast specific to the area you are hiking in
. Summer in California means wildfire season and winter can mean heavy rain and snow; be sure to check
Current Conditions
before leaving home for road or trail closures that may impact your trip.
Obtaining a wilderness permit
wilderness permit
is required year-round for any overnight stay in the Yosemite Wilderness. A wilderness permit is not required for day hikes (unless
hiking to Half Dome
) or for staying in lodging facilities and frontcountry campgrounds.
All wilderness permit reservations are made online through
recreation.gov
From April 29 through October 23 , permit reservation requests can be made from
24 weeks to three days
in advance of the start of a trip. Outside of these dates, a wilderness permit is still required and must be obtained through
self-registration
60% of the reservable quota of wilderness permits is first allotted through a weekly lottery on
recreation.gov
, 24 weeks in advance of the date you wish to start your hike. The
Wilderness Reservation Window
can help you work out what date to apply for a reservation based on the date you would like to start hiking. You may only submit one application to each lottery for your entire group. Multiple applications for the same lottery, even if submitted by other group members, are not allowed. You may submit up to eight preferred itineraries per application. The more flexible you are with your plans, the higher your chance of success. The lottery application period is from Sunday at 12:01am (PT) to Saturday at 11:59pm, with email notification of the outcome sent by the following Monday evening. If you are successful in obtaining a permit reservation through the lottery, you must confirm your reservation by Thursday at 11:59pm. Any remaining reservable quota for each lottery window will be released and available on a first-come, first-served basis each Friday at 9am.
The remaining 40% is released on a first-come, first-served basis on
recreation.gov
seven days in advance of your start date at 7am (PT). Popular trailheads fill very quickly so we recommend that you are logged on and ready to reserve promptly at 7am (PT) seven days in advance of your desired start date. The latest you can make a reservation is three days before your trip, subject to remaining availability.
Know before you go
Yosemite National Park is home to hundreds of American black bears. Yosemite’s black bears can consume up to 20,000 calories per day and they can smell food from over a mile away! Obtaining human food can result in a bear becoming aggressive and sometimes they will have to be killed as a result. By
storing your food properly
, you can help to keep our bears wild and prevent a bear’s unnecessary death.
Bear resistant food containers
(“bear canisters”) are required for overnight hikers throughout the Yosemite Wilderness. Counterbalance food hangs are ineffective and not permitted. In Yosemite and the southern Sierra, bear canisters are the only effective and proven method of preventing bears from getting human food. Anything that goes on your body or in your body needs to go in your bear canister; this includes all your food and trash as well as your toiletries, sunscreen, medications, baby wipes and any other scented items (even if marketed as unscented). If you don’t have your own, you can
rent a bear canister
at any Wilderness Permit Station for only $5 per week when you pick up your permit.
To best protect the Yosemite Wilderness, it is important that you are familiar with the
Yosemite Wilderness regulations,
where you should and should not camp, if and where you can have a
campfire
, and other ways to
minimize your impact
on the wilderness during your backpacking trip.
Backpackers campgrounds
are available for wilderness permit holders to spend one night before and one night after a wilderness trip. You may only stay in the backpacker’s campgrounds when they are open. No reservation is required. The fee is $8 per person, and you must pay in exact change using the envelopes at the campground. You must park at the
designated overnight parking areas
and walk to the backpacker’s campground.
Wondering where to park to start your hike? Check the
Trailhead Information page
! Trailhead restrooms with flush toilets have drinking water available; those with vault toilets do not. All trailheads have food lockers available, except when noted otherwise. Please remember that there is no overnight parking on Tioga or Glacier Point Rd, or in any of the parking lots and pull outs accessed from either of these roads, beginning October 15. There is limited
public transportation
available to some trailheads during the summer months.
Half Dome
A permit is required to hike to the top of Half Dome seven days per week when the cables are up. The cables are normally up the Friday before the last Monday in May (Memorial Day) and the last day to use the cables is the day after the second Monday in October (Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day). However, these dates are subject to change based on conditions (
check if the cables are currently up
). You can choose to hike Half Dome in two ways: in a single day or as part of an overnight backpacking trip.
If you’re planning to hike to the top of
Half Dome via the Cables as part of your wilderness itinerary
, you must enter the wilderness from a Half Dome eligible trailhead. These entry trailheads are:
Happy Isles->Little Yosemite Valley, Happy Isles->Past LYV (Donohue Pass Eligible), Glacier Point->Little Yosemite Valley (trailhead closed in 2022), Sunrise Lakes, Cathedral Lakes, Rafferty Creek->Vogelsang & Mono Meadow (trailhead closed in 2022)
. If you enter the wilderness from one of these trailheads, your entire group is eligible to go up the Half Dome Cables. The cost to add Half Dome to your wilderness permit is $10 per person. You will pay for the Half Dome portion of your permit when you pick up your wilderness permit in person at a Yosemite Wilderness Permit Station. If you already have a
day-use Cables on Half Dome permit
and you wish to camp in Little Yosemite Valley before or after your hike, you will need to
make a wilderness permit reservation
If you choose to
hike Half Dome in a single day
, you must obtain your permit through the
Cables on Half Dome lottery on Recreation.gov
. There is one preseason lottery that runs throughout March and daily lotteries during the hiking season that run two days in advance of the date you wish to hike. Both lotteries are run through
recreation.gov
and are not managed by Yosemite Conservancy. If you still have questions about hiking Half Dome in a single day, please contact the Wilderness Public Information Office on 209-372-0826
John Muir Trail
The John Muir Trail is 211 miles long stretching from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mt Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. If you want to start your hike in Yosemite (often referred to as a Southbound JMT), you will need a Yosemite Wilderness Permit. Due to the popularity of the John Muir Trail,
a quota
is in place for John Muir Trail hikers exiting Yosemite National Park over Donohue Pass. To exit Yosemite National Park over Donohue Pass, you will need to select one of the two Donohue Pass Eligible trailheads as your Wilderness Permit entry point:
Happy Isles->Past LYV (Donohue Pass Eligible) or Lyell Canyon (Donohue Pass Eligible).
If you have a Yosemite Wilderness Permit for one of these two entry trailheads, you do not need a “Whitney stamp” or permits from other national forests or national parks.
Need help planning your John Muir Trail adventure? The
Pacific Crest Trail Association
has all the information you need on
planning your resupplies
transportation
, and
more
to have a safe and successful thru-hike.
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